Defence says Saddam verdict a mockery of justice

AMMAN, Nov 5 (Reuters) Saddam Hussein's defence team said his conviction today for crimes against humanity and the death sentence passed on him were illegal and political.

''This is a mockery of justice and a judgement that comes from a sham and illegal court created by the U.S. occupation that cannot ever provide a fair trial,'' lawyer Bushra al-Khalil told Reuters in Amman, where the defence team is based.

Two of Saddam's senior aides, including his half-brother Barzan al-Tikriti, will hang like the former president if their automatic appeals fail.

Former vice-president Taha Yassin Ramadan was sentenced to life in prison by the US-backed Iraqi High Tribunal, and three minor Baath party officials received long sentences.

Lead lawyer Khalil al-Dulaimi told Reuters by telephone from Baghdad that the defence would appeal, despite their lack of regard for the court.

''Just as the verdict was political, the appeals court will also lack impartiality and will be biased,'' he said.

Dulaimi said Saddam had ''expected, from Day One of his trial, that he would be convicted as the court was a political trial to seek revenge and stir strife among Iraqis to tear the country apart''.

''What can you expect from your enemy?'' he quoted Saddam as telling his lawyers, minutes before he entered the courtroom.

Another lawyer who attended the proceedings, Wadoud Fawzi Shams Eddin, said the verdict was ''prepared in advance and is to market the US elections for Bush''.

''It's the first court in which the verdict is read without the reasons for the conviction,'' he said by telephone.

''In any case, this court is illegal ... what can you expect from an illegal creature of the occupation that not only created it but controlled it and announced the convictions and death sentences.'' REUTERS SP PM1737